Why Brazil Matters to U.S. Colleges

8/11/2011

Last month, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported on Brazil's investment in technical education, noting that the annual federal budget for technical training in Brazil has gone from $385 million in 2003 to $3.8 billion today.

These investments are a part of a powerful shift that is building the middle class in Brazil. Until relatively recently, a person born poor in Brazil was destined to die poor. This is no longer the case. Since 2003, more than 32 million people in this country of 200 million have entered the middle class, and about 20 million have risen above poverty.